Lewis Hamilton eyes wet Miami GP boost after Fiorano run

Lewis Hamilton feels like he has done the most wet weather testing of his career, which he hopes will come in handy on Sunday at the Miami Grand Prix.

Pointing out that he did two days of testing in the rain at Fiorano over the break, Hamilton claimed that the Ferrari SF-26 “doesn’t feel too bad” in the rain. Thunderstorms are threatened in the forecast for Grand Prix Sunday in Miami.

Lewis Hamilton prepares for wet Miami Grand Prix challenge

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Ferrari remained active on track during the April break, ahead of the F1 2026 season resumption in Miami.

Included in Ferrari’s programme was a filming day at Monza, where fan footage showed the Scuderia running its rotating rear wing, last seen in China.

Ferrari has teased a “package and a half” upgrade for Miami.

“I didn’t learn anything at Monza, because it’s a filming day,” Hamilton declared to PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Miami.

Before that, Hamilton took part in a Pirelli wet tyre test at Fiorano, Ferrari’s test track.

That could prove to be useful experience, judging by the forecast in Miami.

There is a threat of thunderstorms come Sunday, with these new F1 cars an unknown in the wet for many drivers.

“But I did two days testing in the rain in Fiorano,” Hamilton continued, “and so that hopefully puts me in a decent position if it rains on Sunday.”

Hamilton was asked how much of an advantage he believes his wet-weather F1 2026 experience could prove to be in a rainy Miami Grand Prix.

Hamilton also drove the SF-26 in wet conditions back at the Barcelona pre-season shakedown.

“I don’t know. I’ve definitely done more wet testing than probably ever before.

“I mean, I had a whole day in Barcelona, which was not fun, and then I had two days of wet testing two weeks ago.

“But it was good to be able to work with Pirelli and have a conversation with them on how we can improve the tyre, because in general, the drivers do complain a lot about the tyres and the grip that we have, and we always want to be improving.

“We used to be able to have some great races in the rain.

“It could be interesting, but the car doesn’t feel too bad in the rain.”

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Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc explained that the cars could actually go “much faster” in the rain at the end of straights, due to a reduced need for battery recharging.

Cornering in the wet with these cars feels “quite nice”, according to Leclerc, who did raise closing speeds in those conditions as a concern.

“You have a lot of electrical power, and I think the weird thing about these cars in the wet is that you might end up going much faster at the end of the straight in wet conditions than you do in the dry conditions, because you don’t have that engine cut, because you’re not using as much energy.

“So you might have less cut in the straights, and arrive faster at the end of the straight. So that’s a little bit strange and counter intuitive.

“But it actually felt quite nice in the corners because the car is quite light.

“In the straight, you can find yourself in tricky situations, especially if drivers are driving with different power unit strategies. You’ve got very little visibility. So that’s the trickiness of these rules, and something that we need to understand a way out of that.

“Because in the wet, we are really passengers. In the rain, it’s not about being brave or not. It’s you stay flat out and you hope that no cars in front of you are slower than you, and you just assume they are on the same speed as you.

“That was kind of easy to assume in the past years. Now it’s not the case anymore. So we will go flat out and let’s see how it goes. It’s not such a nice feeling. So this is something we need to still work a way around that.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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